Cécile Favre et al 2018 ApJL 862 L2
The two-oxygen-atom organic molecule formic acid has been detected toward the TW Hydrae protoplanetary disk, providing proof that organic chemistry is very active, albeit difficult to observe, in such objects.
Dale D. Kocevski et al 2018 ApJS 236 48
The publicly available X-UDS survey results, obtained with Chandra, suggest that the intrinsic Compton-thick active galactic nucleus fraction is 30%–35% over a wide range in redshift (z = 0.1–3).
Ryan Lynch et al 2018 ApJL 861 L24
Changing the GW-alert threshold to roughly double the number of detectable astrophysical events would increase the false-alarm rate by 5+ orders of magnitude — from 1 per 100 years to more than 1000 per year.
Yoichiro Hanaoka et al 2018 ApJ 860 142
Coronal jets extending to beyond 2 R⊙ were observed during the total solar eclipse in August 2017, suggesting that ordinary polar jets generally reach high altitudes and escape from the Sun as part of the solar wind.
Audrey Thirouin and Scott S. Sheppard 2018 AJ 155 248
Observations of 12 Plutinos over two separated years with the 4.3 m Lowell’s Discovery Channel Telescope reveal large-amplitude variation in three of their light curves, suggesting these Plutinos are contact binaries.
Wei Zhu et al 2018 ApJ 860 101
New modeling suggests that the fraction of Sun-like stars with Kepler-like planets — planets with radii Rp > R⊕ and orbital periods P < 400 days — is only ~30%, not 50% as previously indicated.